This week the central banks stopped debating and started moving. The ECB raised to 2.50% and called it a no brainer, US inflation held at 3.4% on the same energy the war keeps bidding up, Brent jumped about 9% to $105, and Oracle booked a $664 billion AI backlog, the very spending a Fed chair blamed for inflation. Every read pointed one way, into the meeting the Fed holds next.
Read Full Report →“The ECB has decided that credibility is the variable it can still control when the oil price is not.”
Issue No. 11 · The Week in Question
The ECB raised to 2.50% and called it a no brainer, US inflation held at 3.4% on energy, Brent jumped about 9% to $105, and Oracle booked a $664 billion AI backlog. Every read this week pointed at the rate rise the Fed decides next.
Read Report ›The French ten year hit 4.11%, its highest since October 2008 and above Italy’s on the same screen, as a global bond rout found the one budget it could rewrite. The interest bill rose 19% in six months and unemployment reached a six year high.
Read Report ›Zambians voted in an election that doubles as a referendum on the debt deal that ended Africa’s first pandemic-era default. Copper is at a record and the kwacha is the continent’s best performing currency.
Read Report ›The week's four stories that actually mattered: what happened, why it matters, and what to watch next. Five minutes, no paywall.
Follow on LinkedInOn September 15 and 16 the Federal Reserve meets, the decision the whole week pointed at: after a hawkish Jackson Hole, a jobs report at triple the forecast and a CPI that held at 3.4%, a rate rise is a live outcome for the first time in years, and the dot plot and the press conference will matter more than the move itself. Alongside it, Gulf and Iranian foreign ministers are due to meet in Oman on a temporary arrangement for Hormuz shipping, which is the one thing that could drain the war premium out of the oil price both the Fed and the ECB are forecasting against. And with Frankfurt moved and Washington on the clock, watch whether the Bank of England and others follow the turn or hold, and whether any dares name the same supply shock as the reason.
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Wealth in Question is a weekly attempt to connect the dots between markets and the world that moves them. Each Sunday it covers the handful of stories that actually mattered that week: central banks, geopolitics, energy, trade, and tries to explain not just what happened, but what it means and what's worth watching next.
The premise is simple: most financial news is either too shallow or too long. This is the five-minute version that respects your intelligence. Wealth in Question is independent, carries no advertising, and answers to no one.